


I Would Hold You For Forever

by homosexuwhy



Series: DaveKat Week 2017 [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Apple Juice, Davekat Week 2017, Day 1, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, M/M, MENTIONS OF BRO BEING ABUSIVE, Meteorstuck, Pre-Sburb/Sgrub, Triggers:, actually its on a dream bubble from a time before the game, cal - Freeform, davekatweek, i cant write meteorstuck and NOT add aj, one could say
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 04:48:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11729811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homosexuwhy/pseuds/homosexuwhy
Summary: Karkat, honestly, had no idea what it was like for Dave to grow up in the environment he did. That is, until he finds himself inside Dave's apartment, charged with the way Dave felt towards it. And mostly witnessing Dave admit to himself that it wasn't easy on him.





	I Would Hold You For Forever

**Author's Note:**

> August 6: Post-Canon/Pre-Canon
> 
> also, the tags got all messed up, sorry!

Soft, soothing waves of jazzy electronic music flooded the lab, most likely coming from their living space. Dave decided to take some of his free time to share his DJing skills with Rose, but his sister was far from letting his style predominate.

The whole meteor had the traces of their stay, not only sound-wise. Maybe that too. From Dave’s loud singing in the ablution block, to Kanaya’s chirping mixing with rose’s uniquely human laughter, the place screamed Earth.

But it was also in other aspects, so basic to their lives Karkat had to wait to grasp fully. He woke up to the smell of coffee, on the rare occasion he did sleep. There were cozies for every electronic device (a clear courtesy of Rose’s boredom), and every common area had at least a section of light.

Due to their inability to see in the dark, which Karkat could only read as a great fault in their evolutive process, the twins worked on alchemizing fairy light over lamp over glow in the dark stickers. All of which, he suspected, served more purpose than what meets the eye.

Moreover, living in a shared space took its toll on the trolls. None of them were used to this collective lifestyle, and seemingly only Kanaya could fully embrace it. Terezi was monopolizing the Mayor, Vriska was always either doing something sketchy or planning for their inevitable arrival, Gamzee was Gamzee and Karkat had nothing to do by himself.

None of the books were any good (he’d read the decent ones over and over already), re-learning how to hack turned out disastrous and he couldn’t spend all his time with Dave. He wanted to be able to be alone.

So he usually found himself wondering aimlessly, going into some of the open areas and mapping out his view, each angle of the structures on the meteor and the places he has yet to go to.

Currently, he was making his way back to the lab, ready to get some socializing down. Maybe ask how are things on the apple juice front, try and help a little. But then he hears a nasally voice coming from the intercom. Vriska.

“We are approaching another dream bubble! This one is medium sized, so brace yourselves and _avoid trouble._ ”

Not five minutes later, when he’s going through the door to his respiteblock, he senses the environment morph into somewhere else. Somewhere warm and vaguely familiar. He now finds himself on a hallway with numbered doors.

From the ones he attempts to open, the only one which does ends in 04. It reveals an open kitchen and a living room morphed into someone’s living space. He was in Dave’s old hive. The insides were quite as he remembered from the viewfinder on trollian, but the dream bubble situation made it feel different.

Karkat imagined that was due to it being a memory from Dave, so it also carried the emotional baggage it did within his mind. He felt as if he should be hyperaware of his surroundings, paranoid even.

Not letting it get to him, he looks around a bit more. Picking up one smuppet here, checking out the videogames available (maybe he’ll captchalogue some, it might come out salvageable). The problem with captachloguing things from dream bubbles is, it depended on how well the individual knew it in the first place.

He moves to the kitchen, admires the collection of weapons. None of them appeal to Karkat. He glimpses at a red blinking light at the corner of the wall, a recording camera. Well, that sure ain’t creepy at all.

Dave’s room, if he recalls properly, is through the other door and… yup, there it is. Karkat walks in carefully, in case Dave’s already in there. He spots something interesting near the bed and hastily captchalogues it.  There’s no way that one’s going to come out messed up.

At the corner of his eyes, he senses something moving. Attributing to dream bubble fluctuation stuff, Karkat doesn’t pay much mind. He turns around to see lil’ Cal sitting on top of the turntables, fist outstretched. They both enter a staring contest, which Karkat admits is moronic, until he finally gives in and fist bumps its tiny hands. Reluctantly.

Okay, he is definitely getting out of there. Nothing else to see, chooses to go to the roof. Maybe stargaze, he’s never seen Earth’s stars. Maybe have his eyes burned out by the sun. Who knows. Something drops behind him when he passes by the hall.

On his way out, he glimpses at Cal once in the kitchen, and again on his peripheral vision as he’s closing the door. But it totally doesn’t freak him out at all.

The staircase is precarious, the door couldn’t save someone from a fire if it tried. Inside, there were some squiggly lines on the wall and a ‘dave was here’. Cute. The steps were stained by old bubblegum and what appeared to be oil, aside usual staircase grossness.

Coming out of the door, Karkat was relieved to find it was night. Karkat was also (mostly) relieved to find another breathing body, red cape betraying that this iteration of Strider was, in fact, the one he was familiarized with, as opposed to an even more immature dream projection.

He sat atop the air conditioning structure, and turned around with a jump when he heard the door close. He sights when he notices it’s just Karkat and turns back around.

“Creepy doll.” Karkat puts simply before standing besides Dave. There were no stars in the sky.

“Yup.” Dave pops the p. There’s silence, and then noise, the kind Karkat does not know, but associates with the moving red and yellow and white lights from the street.

“It’s really noisy here.” He says. “Couldn’t they drive silently?”

“Nah man. They gotta honk at the others. It’s the real life version of a youtube comment section. You get to complain from the safety and anonymity of your car, and in a matter of seconds you are gone, like it never happened. Then you can come back to your wife at home and be like ‘oh why yes darling, I had the loveliest day. I’m such a pleasant person and I have my feelings under control.’ Because you were an asshole to everyone on the street and now your rage supply is low.” His words are a bit more rushed than usual. He isn’t raving his thoughts, he’s pushing them out.

“It’s so annoying. I wouldn’t sleep ever again if I had a stupid bunch of wigglers honking outside my hive. It’s like living with a familiar unity of Gamzees.” _Huff._ The thought alone pains Karkat.

“So, what brings you here, done making acquaintances with Cal?”

“How did you even live with that shit? I wanted to wreck it with a sledgehammer the whole time.”

“I…” Dave’s breathing fails. “I don’t know. It was just, what life was. And Rose and John and Jade acted like this was something they all went through, so I assumed it was just a thing that everyone did and being scared was nothing and I was acting like a baby.”

“I guess… Jade I can understand, what with that lusus. But obviously it was not the same thing. I mean I felt a bit like I used to in Alternia, with the Imperial Drones. Like something’s out to get me.”

“Oh, Bro was out to get me alright. But part of me is grateful. I’m like 99% sure I only survived because of my sick sword technique and awesome reflexes.”

Karkat jumps up the structure and sits with Dave. There’s not a lot to look at, honestly. Dave seems tense at his side, and he isn’t very relaxed himself. “The other humans managed just fine.”

“Maybe.” He fiddles with the edge of his cape. If that thing wasn’t eternal, it’d be frayed to an unsalvageable state by now. “I think he was just trying to teach me to take care of myself. Since he could never be able to care for me.”

“Well, it obviously didn’t work at all. You can’t even move, you’re so tense. Even in troll society if your kissmessis does that it’s problematic. I can’t even imagine it here with your soft monkey shit.”

“Rose once told me I was neglected. She also asked me if I wanted her to write a diagnosis and file a case or whatever. I guess I just didn’t give much of a fuck, I was 11 at the time. What was I going to do, live off the streets, be thrown into foster care?”

“I don’t know, Dave. Things work different where I’m from. What I can tell you is the puppet was fucked up since I first saw it on the meteor.”

“Thanks for reminding me of your perverted stalking.” He chuckles, but it’s shallow, like the response is more of an obligation than anything. “It sucks, coming back here. I never let myself take the time to feel this during the game because there was so much more going on, but it’s disgusting. I feel weak and idiotic for letting this get to me, like I’m so, so angry at myself for having a perfectly normal response.”

“Do you want to maybe… not be here?” Karkat asks. He’s not sure he can manage to take them out of there, but he can try.

“Hell yeah. I mean, I tried but every time I think of somewhere else my mind takes me back here.”

Karkat closes his eyes. Although unaware, he is getting in contact with his aspect. He is protecting Dave, Dave who looks quite honestly pitiful right now. He is leading them out of there, he is protecting him and trying to conjure somewhere else to go.

Thinking back to his life, there were no landmarks. His hive wasn’t a good place. Besides it being too personal, he wouldn’t want to accidentally include his lusus or, the Empress forbid a drone.  The streetlight turned green beneath them, far away on the street. He knew where to go.

With his eyes closed, he remembered the red rivers running through black spikes. He saw the vastness of inhabitable land in the eye of his mind until he reached the green flora in the horizon. Then, he fixated on the nature and started to feel the environment switch once again.

Now, they were sitting on a smoothed black rock. The green trees surrounded them and small rivers of red ran where the raven land failed to cover. Other than the running liquid splashing against the rocks, there was no other sound to be heard.

“Where is this?” Dave asked after taking in the view.

“LOPAH. Land of Pulse and Haze. The haze you can spot above us, the neat lavender fog, and the pulse is characterized by the not-creepy-at-all blood pushers lying around.”

“Neat. Thanks.” Dave placed his hand over Karkat’s, and the latter felt his eyes shot wide open as he contemplated the flow. Dave continued as if unaware. “I needed to fuck off or I’d start panicking.”

Karkat relaxed, slowly. He twisted his hand around, trying to do some proper hand-holding. He twisted his head to look at Dave. “Anytime.” He said. Dave sniffed. _Had he been crying?_ Karkat thought to himself. Well, it was most likely, as he had just relived a hardcore traumatic experience. It just got progressively more pitiful, this interaction.

Karkat thinks back to all of his romances, to all the iterations oh so similar to the position he found himself in. He knew he had nothing to lose, just as much as he knew he could just blame any bigger problems on cultural gaps.

He looked down and felt the anxiety rise in his throat.

But Dave, Dave moved his thumb to Karkat’s palm, he drew round shapes with his finger in such a careful way. He must have known what that implied, the boy couldn’t be that oblivious. Karkat looked back up, first at the two eyes looking back at him through tinted glasses. He lets his expression soften, he wants to transmit his concern and care.

Then, he looks down at his lips, slightly opening as a ‘go-ahead’. Karkat leans his head slowly. Closes his eyes once he’s moved halfway through the distance. Dave makes no effort forward, but he squeezes Karkat’s hands in his.

Just before their lips touch, he feels Dave’s mouth taking in one last shaky breath and closing the distance. At first, they just touch, shy and anxious. Karkat parts his lips and adjusts himself to be turned to Dave.

The position is awkward, but it’s easier like that. In opening his mouth slightly, he fits Dave’s lower lips between his. Experimentally, he sucks on them with as much care as possible. Dave does the same to Karkat’s upper lips, and they alternate like that for a short while, until they pull away.

“Is this… okay?” Karkat asks. He still has Dave’s hands in his, but now he’s sitting with his legs thrown to the side, facing the other. Dave nods in response, and brings his other hand to the back of Karkat’s head, pulls him closer.

“Yeah.” It’s barely audible and the words have barely dissipated in the air when they’re kissing again. The heaviness leaves Karkat’s shoulders and he lets himself be taken by the warmth of a careful touch, a type of attention he never felt. Kissing Dave made him understand why humans lived such tame lives.

Because when he started moving his lips again, when he felt the tip of Dave’s tongue playing against his lower lip so softly, and mostly when he finally let Dave’s hand go to wrap his arms around him protectively, he understood how it was to have those you cared for, safe with you.

“I have something for you.” Karkat said once they broke apart. Dave hummed questioningly. He produced the bottle of apple juice he found on Dave’s room from his captchalogue. And hands it to him.

Dave looks at it, incredulous. Then he smiles and cracks the seal open. He takes a sip and hands the bottle to Karkat. “Try it.” Karkat does, and in complete honesty, it’s fine. Not too sweet, makes his tongue feel a little funny. But what makes it great is the adoration in Dave’s face when he hugs Karkat.

“Thank you.” He whispers repeatedly into his shoulders. Karkat can’t even convey the words to tell him it was his pleasure.

**Author's Note:**

> i might rewrite this on dave's pov a little while after the week is over, because i feel i could explore this very nicely in his perspective as well.  
> also, this fic was a bit of a stretch from the prompt, but i'd say it counts. I wanted to try and put them in a time before the game, within the canon universe, when davekat could still ensue, and this was my way of doing it.


End file.
